Sewer takes up biggest chunk of city's budget

Almost $2 million in repairs at Kalispell’s wastewater treatment plant. A study exploring sewage flows and line capacities in some of the city’s fastest growing areas. An upgrade for a sewer line along First Alley East North that’s too small and prone to back up into service lines and homes.

Those are some of the major sanitary sewer projects in Kalispell’s proposed budget for next fiscal year.

At the treatment plant, crews with Swank Enterprises continue to work on a $1.2 million overhaul of the primary digester tank and lid. The project should be finished by this winter and leave the digester — a major part of the plant’s treatment processes — in good repair for a couple more decades.

An estimated $560,000 project to replace sludge presses at the treatment plant is in planning stages. That work is expected to go out for bids this fall and start this winter during the slowest time of year for the plant.

“With that project we want to pilot certain presses so we know which one will work best,” Public Works Director Susie Turner said. “We don’t want to buy an expensive piece of equipment and have it not work.”

Public works is spending $65,000 to upgrade computers at the treatment plant and look for ways to optimize the plant’s biological treatment processes.

The optimization study is part of Kalispell’s application for a discharge permit renewal. It’s needed if Kalispell wants a variance to comply with strict new water quality standards for phosphorus and nitrogen that are being phased in.

The study will look for cost-effective ways to adjust operations and clean up discharges. That’s one first step for dealing with phosphorus and nitrogen standards that eventually will ratchet down to trace levels the plant cannot meet.

Kalispell is setting aside $35,000 to replace pumps and motors in its sewage collection system. That’s $15,000 more than was allocated last year because crews are seeing more pump and motor failures as the system ages, Turner said. 

The city is spending $23,000 to enclose several above-ground lift stations. That’s part of an ongoing initiative to bring older lift stations up to modern city standards. The lift stations currently covered with fiberglass doghouses. 

“They’re not very weather-resistant so in winter we are wrapping them and putting in those tiny little space heaters so they don’t freeze. It’s just not very efficient,” Turner said.

A study concluding this summer is exploring sewage flows and line capacities in north and west Kalispell. Data from the study will help the city decide if or when it needs to start building the northwest interceptor, a multimillion-dollar series of large new lines to carry sewage from those areas to the wastewater treatment plant.

“It would be our next project. As our lines on the west side of town are at capacity, we need to look at other options to flow, either upsizing our existing mains or putting in the west-side interceptor,” Turner said. “From our estimates right now, we are very close to going to council and saying, ‘OK, this is the status of our lines. We need to move forward with planning to actually construct a west-side interceptor.’ Probably by this fall we’ll have that ready.” 

An estimated $315,000 project will replace an eight-inch sewer line on First Alley East North. A 12-inch sewer line and a six-inch sewer line both feed into the line from the north, creating a huge potential for backups into the six-inch line, service lines and homes.

“It’s a terrible situation you never want to have to deal with, but unfortunately we do,” Turner said. The project will replace the undersized line on First Alley East North with 12-inch line. It’s slated to be designed this winter and be completed in 2014.

SEWER COLLECTION, treatment and billing represent almost $9 million of expenditures in the $46.8 million budget Kalispell is considering. Sewer service is the city’s largest enterprise operation and represents a bigger part of the budget than police and fire services, individually or combined.

Sewer operations are projected to end next fiscal year with about $5.1 million in cash — a figure that could fluctuate with the economy and the outcome of an overdue review of the city’s sewer impact fees. That carry-forward balance includes $1.4 million in operating cash, $1.6 million in impact-fee cash for collection system projects, $266,230 in impact-fee cash for treatment plant projects and $1.2 million in restricted bond reserves.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.